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“We say, ‘Isn’t it so weird to think Erica is here, and her liver’s next door?’” she says.

Everyone laughs. But it’s not actually a joke.

Schell’s daughter, 21-year-old Erica Tomlinson, donated most of her liver to their neighbour, Renee Ly, on Nov. 20, 2013.

As a living donor, Tomlinson underwent surgery that removed about 70 per cent of her liver. It was transplanted into Ly, in the adjacent operating room at Toronto General Hospital. Tomlinson’s liver will have regenerated completely by this time next month.

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The families have been friendly since Ly, 39, moved into the house next door on McLaughlin Ave. in 2010, with her husband and two sons.

“It started off borrowing a cup of sugar or some milk, it turned into borrowing a liver,” says Tomlinson, laughing.

Ly was diagnosed in 2009 with a rare liver disease, primary sclerosing cholangitis. Within a couple years the disease was attacking her spleen, her heart, her lymph nodes. She was sick, raising two adolescent sons.

Tomlinson started thinking about it as soon as she heard.

“I knew it had to be done,” says Tomlinson. “I just said, ‘A life’s a life and if I can do this, I’m going to do it.’ ”

Ten days after Ly was put on the transplant list in September 2013, there was a knock at her door.

Tomlinson told her neighbour she wanted to donate, demanding the phone number for the transplant centre where she would need tests to determine whether she was a possible fit. At first, Ly refused.

“It’s very hard to accept someone wanting to do something like that for you, putting themselves at risk,” says Ly. “And her age — she’s so young, with so much going for her.”

Tomlinson, a baker and event planner, booked her first appointments the next day.

"It started off borrowing a cup of sugar or some milk, it turned into borrowing a liver"

Erica Tomlinson

Liver donor

Through the fall, there was a battery of tests to determine whether Tomlinson was a match. All the while, Ly’s health was declining, fast. She was jaundiced, weak; her abdomen swelled up with excess fluids. Without a new liver, Ly had perhaps a year left to live.

Tomlinson went through the assessments and the green lights kept coming.

Schell, who works in health care, asked a lot of questions. She played devil’s advocate, making sure her daughter was really certain.

“Obviously, I was frightened,” says Schell. “It’s my daughter on the table. But we also knew that Renee’s life was at risk. I was confident in Erica’s decision. She wasn’t wavering one bit.”

Tomlinson’s surgery lasted eight hours. Ly’s was more than 10. Their families and friends crowded together in a waiting room, watching the doors that led to the operating area. Every time a doctor approached, they tensed up, expecting good news, fearing, just a little, bad.

But at the end of it, everyone cheered.

Tomlinson had to have a second surgery a couple days after the transplant, when doctors were concerned about internal bleeding, and a blood transfusion when her hemoglobin dropped precariously. For weeks after, they were both exhausted all the time.

“Even getting out of bed, I was ready for a nap before I even tried to sit up,” says Tomlinson.

But it’s getting better every day.

Ly goes next door to her house to grab something. It’s the video she made for Tomlinson as thanks.

Photos show the three women — Schell, Tomlinson, Ly — smiling, hugging, in the days before liver disease began its assault. Then Ly looking haggard, bloated, the whites of her eyes yellow, a good decade older than her years. Tomlinson and Ly coming out of surgery with tired smiles and thumbs up. And then now.

Less than a quarter of Ontarians are organ donors; that figure is only 15 per cent in the GTA. More than 1,500 people in the province are awaiting an organ that could save their life.

Nearly 70 people in Ontario died in 2012 because they didn’t get one in time.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” says Tomlinson. “And I’ve still got a kidney up for grabs.”

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